Training Program: Global Health and Underserved Populations Track

The Global Health and Underserved Populations Track is a unique program designed to train physician leaders in clinical medicine, teaching, health policy, and research in global health. Next steps for our graduates.

At its foundation is a core internal medicine competency with a strong generalist perspective, cost-conscious practice, and back-to-basics diagnosis. Clinical training provides exposure to local and international sites, coupled with a curriculum and scholarly work designed to address health policy, public health issues, and social factors influencing health and disease in the global context.

Clinical experiences are available in Pittsburgh, other areas of the United States, and international sites such as the following:

The Global Health Equity Lecture Series takes place weekly on Mondays at noon to advance core competencies in HIV/AIDS, tropical diseases, public health, policy and advocacy, human rights, bioethics, and health services research. It also serves as a forum for health professionals, residents, and students from medicine and other disciplines to share ideas and opportunities to advance the global health agenda. Residents in their second and third year of residency actively contribute to this conference series by exploring the social, economic, and political issues of country and region of interest through preparatory seminars before departure and through debriefing seminars after the completion of the international experience. For a schedule of lectures, click here.

Each resident in this track is assigned a mentor who is a faculty member from the University of Pittsburgh and the Center for Global Health and has ongoing activities in the resident's country of interest. One of the Global Health Track's key faculty members will serve as the resident's program and career mentor to ensure that each resident achieves all the goals of the residency track and receives the appropriate guidance and resources to pursue additional training or a position after residency.

An integral component of the Global Health and Underserved Populations Track is a longitudinal project on a relevant global health issue. The Scholarly Project is designed to complement the international clinical experience. The project itself can focus on underserved populations in the United States but should have global perspectives based on the international experience. Typically, up to 4 months at an international site is split up between the second and third years of residency. Categories of Scholarly Project include:

Systematic description and documentation of a specific health problem

Service-based quality improvement study

Program development and evaluation

Community needs assessment and population surveys

Health policy and advocacy paper

Humanism in medicine paper with concentration on global and international issues

Residents who are interested in pursuing health services research in Pittsburgh with potential global health implications will be matched with funded researchers in the Division of General Internal Medicine.

Global Health Preparatory Seminar - A month-long global health preparatory seminar is offered for global health residents and interested categorical residents. This seminar covers public policy, health systems, financing, human rights/ethics, and clinical skills relevant to resource-poor settings (parasitology, procedural skills, portable ultrasound, etc.). Guest lecturers and faculty discussants are from the Graduate School of Public Health, the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and other institutes and disciplines. For more information on our seminar and examples of work being done by Global Health Track residents, please click on below:

Embarking on a systematic review with instruction and resources provided through the EBM Resident Journal Club. For more information, click here.

The Graduate School of Public Health offers a Certificate in Global Health as part of the MPH degree program. Other master's degree programs are also available through the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at GSPIA. In addition, the Institute for Clinical Research Education offers several degree programs in clinical research and medical education.

The Department of Medicine offers up to 4 positions in the Global Health and Underserved Populations Track each year. For additional information about this track, please contact Dr. Thuy Bui. For more information on general application procedures, visit our How to Apply page. For a printable pdf outline of the Global Health Track, please click here.

*If you took the global health prep course already in your first year, you will have an extra month elective in the second year.
**You may elect to take PACT in the second or third year, depending on your interest.